We’re gradually accumulating more and more submissions during this reading period, which is still open until September 1. So if you haven’t yet submitted something, go right ahead and do so.

Perhaps the biggest news right now is our roster of featured presenters for next year’s Windhover Writers’ Festival (February 5-7, 2014). Our keynote address will be given by Bret Lott, author of over a dozen books, the most recent one being Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian. You can watch a short video about the book here, and you can read the first chapter/essay here. Both are excellent. Enjoy!

Our other featured presenters include fiction writer Gina Ochsner, poet Benjamin Myers, and visual artist Micah Bloom (whose artwork was featured on the cover and the interior of the 2013 issue). All four presenters will be leading workshops for festival participants.

You can find more information about the festival, including full bios of the presenters, on the website. Please see the Call For Papers section as well, as we would like you to consider presenting your own work.

The academic year has wrapped up, and that mean’s I’ll be busy working on all things Windhover over the summer months. With that said, here’s an update on all things Windhover:

This year’s issue turned out to be a beautiful edition, if I may say so. It’s been encouraging to hear so many positive responses. Just today, for example, New Pages posted a wonderful review of the issue: http://www.newpages.com/literary-magazine-reviews/

During early March, I brought the journal to AWP in Boston, arriving just before a snowstorm canceled and delayed many flights. At the conference, I met with lots of writers, potential readers and submitters, connected with other editors, and, overall had a wonderful experience. I plan to bring the journal to AWP Seattle in February 2014.

For next year’s issue, Volume 18, we’ve transitioned to using Submittable. If you haven’t yet submitted, you can find a link to our submissions manager here, as well as on the main Windhover page. We’re open for submissions of creative nonfiction, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry through September 1.

I’ve also assumed the position of directing the annual Windhover Writers’ Festival here on the campus of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. I will soon be releasing the roster of speakers for next year’s festival, which will be February 5-7, 2014.

Next April I’ll be bringing Windhover to Calvin College’s Festival of Faith and Writing, scheduled for April 10-12, 2014, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I spent much of December working on the layout for Windhover (volume 17), and I’m happy to report that the proof will be sent to the printer today. Here’s a picture of the cover, featuring work by artist Micah Bloom:

While working as an editor on a literary journal, I enjoy many aspects, but what I enjoy most is the actual process of creating the issue. For my first task, I gathered hard copies of all the pieces and spent a good hour arranging an order for the journal. I used the two large tables in the faculty lounge, shuffling pieces around, searching for threads between pieces. I’m a believer in creating an order for a journal so that if a reader does read the journal from cover to cover, he or she will notice connections and motifs, sometimes overt and sometimes more subtle.

Having completed that process, I worked in the quiet of my office (the students already off for the semester) for several days laying out the pieces we’d accepted months earlier, watching the issue take shape. At first, using new software (to me) was a little sticky, but I shortly acquired competency.

Even the proofreading was enjoyable for me. For the first time, I’m reading the journal as a whole, seeing it for the first time, cleaning and polishing as needed.

And now we’re in the waiting period for the next few weeks while the issue is printed. I had very few challenges in the process of putting together this issue. Whew!

As of October 1st, we closed our submissions window, and the contributing editors and I are reviewing manuscripts for Windhover 17, due out in early Spring 2013. I am excited about publishing the first issue under my editorship.

One major change to the journal will be that of electronic submissions. When our next reading period opens on February 1, 2013, Windhover will be accepting electronic submissions only; however, unlike some journals, we will not charge writers a fee to submit their work.

I admit that I was at first reluctant to pursue this route, as I enjoy the thrill of opening a manuscript envelope and wondering about the contents inside. Nonetheless, this change will allow us to save money on photocopies, to be better stewards of the environment, and, more than likely, to expedite the process of notifying writers as to the status of their submissions.

That’s all for now. I’m off to give a poetry reading at the Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature in OKC.